Interesting. One minor point: there are plenty of people in the Peace Corps who are not from especially well-off families. Well enough off to be college educated, sure, but it isn’t exclusively trust fund babies (anecdotal: my poorest friend is in the Peace Corps, he grew up in one of the poorest places in the US). Also, the status issue isn’t about the geographical location of the work (see Americorps) it’s that the work is known to be underpaid relative to the market so the people who do it get credit for altruism.
ETA: Which doesn’t mean the Peace Corps isn’t about status, but equating status with class makes very little sense anymore.
Interesting. One minor point: there are plenty of people in the Peace Corps who are not from especially well-off families. Well enough off to be college educated, sure, but it isn’t exclusively trust fund babies (anecdotal: my poorest friend is in the Peace Corps, he grew up in one of the poorest places in the US). Also, the status issue isn’t about the geographical location of the work (see Americorps) it’s that the work is known to be underpaid relative to the market so the people who do it get credit for altruism.
ETA: Which doesn’t mean the Peace Corps isn’t about status, but equating status with class makes very little sense anymore.